Vampire Academy: Destiny
by Lauz1
Summary: A life for a life. Rose entered the caves to save his life in exchange for her own. They all think she's dead and to an extent she is. But what happens when the world realises you can't just kill a Hathaway? What happens when you become the hunted?
1. Chapter 1

Destiny, supposedly I had one in being a guardian to the last heir to the Dragomir name, my best friend of thirteen years, my blood bound sister Lissa. There was a strict guideline of how life for a Dhampir was supposed to go; you were either a fighter or a lover, a lone solider or family bound. I had accepted a long time ago that I was never going to be a part of a family, I had given up the notion of ever having children because I had a duty, one that I lived for and one that I would die for... one that I did die for... twice.

The first time I had passed through into the spirit world was when Lissa and I had been traveling back with her family, something had been in the road which caused Lissa's father to swerve and veer us off of the road. The car had a hit a tree and with such an impact I had been thrown from out of my seat, in the middle of the back of the car through the front window. My body was broken beyond repair or so it had appeared. Lissa had saved me before I could pass through to the world of darkness with her spirit bound abilities and given me the gift of life. Unfortunately her parents and older brother, Andre hadn't been so lucky. They had died at the scene.

The second time I had passed through into the spirit world, well I hadn't been so lucky. I had followed the guardians down to the caves just beyond the woods, a mile or so away from the school. Strigoi had attacked our school, taken my peers and held them captive. With my own little gift of being able to sense when strigoi were near thanks to my blood bond with Lissa, I helped discover the location of the caves and had gone with the guardians because I had simply needed to be there. The guardians had entered the cave with the mission of destroy, rescue and recover. They were to destroy any Strigoi left inside, rescue the students whom they could and recover the bodies...

And thats when it happened. The second time where I died. Everything happened within a flash. I was standing outside of the caves, watching and waiting for the guardians to return. And then I saw him, walking towards me, returning home to be with me. That had been the plan at least. He was going to give up his post as Lissa's guardian, get an assignment within court so that we could be together. That had been the plan.

A warm smile touched my lips as he stepped towards me, almost out into the daylight. The smile died as a set of strong, muscular hands wrapped around his throat and dragged him backwards into the darkness. Before anyone could stop me, before anyone could see what was happening I had run into the cave without thinking, without any weaponry.

Dimitri's eyes went wide as he fought back against his attacker. But his attacker was too strong and Dimitri's usually bright but guarded eyes faded and they closed as he passed out from the lack of oxygen. He fell to the floor in front of me, his large six foot seven frame taking up the majority of cave floor.

"You cant win this little girl.." Dimitri's attacker taunted me, his blood thirsty eyes taking in my curves. I couldn't win. I could either attack which would give the approaching guardians behind me the chance to get him out of here or I could turn around and run away, leaving Dimitri to his fate.

I couldn't turn around. There was no possible way I could leave an unconscious Dimitri in the cave alone with a Strigoi, he was the love of my life, even at seventeen I was sure of that.

My feet reacted before my brain engaged. They jumped over Dimitri's unconscious body and leapt out towards the blonde haired, red eyed Strigoi.

"ROSE!"

I turned my head for the briefest of moments to glance over my shoulder, my mother was fifteen feet away from me almost at Dimitri's body. Dimitri's eyes opened, narrowed and then widened as he regained his senses. But it was too late.

I closed my eyes and prayed that it would be quick. His fangs ripped through the layers of flesh on my shoulder, I felt nothing but pure agony until the beautiful bliss set in. And then there was darkness.

-

My skin had once resembled the inside of an almond, a beautiful creamy complexion. To the human, untrained eye it still looked exactly the same but to me it looked slightly faded and pale. My hair while still long and dark it was now constantly shiny and had a gloss to it that could have made me a hair commercial model. My eyes often overlooked due to my other, more prominent features were no longer their soft, warm brown shade but a ravishing, angry blood red. The only thing that had remained the same were my curves, dangerous and very much distinguished.

"Excuse me." An irritatingly high pitched voice screamed in my ear, pushing into my back to make her way past me into the bathroom.

"Your excused." I growled, irritated by the littlest things these days. I closed my eyes and inhaled to calm myself but instead the smell of bleach and the girl's dewberry scented perfume washed over me like a tidal wave. "What did you do, shower in that cheap ass perfume? Next time do the public a service and remember less is more."

"Who the fu--" Her question died on her lips as I opened my eyes and glared at her through the mirror. She stopped mid approach and her mouth hung open ready to catch flies. But a minute later she was back on her approach, no longer intimidated by me. Oh how naive. "I think someone's been hit with the ugly stick and sweetie red contacts are so 2002. " She laughed at her own little joke. Her laughed weighed down on my nerves even more so than her nasal high pitched voice.

My right hand clenched into a fist, I could feel the blood pumping through my veins, urging me to lash out. My heart usually silent was beating rapidly against my chest, desperately trying to find a way out. The smell of her dewberry perfume was now washed away and covered with the beautiful sweet scent of the blood running through her veins. I licked my lips and let out a deep sigh. "Get out... now" I growled.

For a girl who didn't seem to get the hint the first time around, it seemed like she wised and sobered up because she was out of the bathroom within a blink of an eye. My hands reached out and grabbed ahold of the tiled bathroom counter. "Get a grip, Rose..." I took in a deep breath, her sweat was still lingering in the air but even more than that was here beautiful aroma of fear which was perfectly mixed with her blood.

I tensed for a moment, one quick moment which saw me break the tile counter. The pasty tiny remains from the edge of the counter were on the floor in front of me and in my hand. "Crap.." Shaking the tiny fragments from my hand, I bit down on my lip no longer consumed by the scent in the air but the mess that I had caused. What a way to try and remain covert, I chided myself.

"Rose..."

Looking up from the floor I found myself looking into a beautiful heart shaped face, warm brown eyes and an almost transparent body. "Jace, back so soon?"

A small smile touched his lips with my comment.

I had been told once that when a blood bond individual like myself passed on into the spirit world or became a member of the spine chilling, undead blood sucking crew that the bond would break because the undead aren't capable of maintaining or even producing any kind of magic. Well I had two months of experience that told me otherwise and I even got to put a little cherry on top of that cake because the bond that should have been supposedly broken was in top form, even giving the dead a voice.

"You need to come... now." The teenage boy turned and walked out of the bathroom, expecting me to follow like the little lost lamb that I was.

"Still bossy I see..." I sighed and stomped my foot as I turned in my black three inch boots and followed him out of the bathroom, weaving in and out of the dancing crowd. Jace had been stalking me for a little over three weeks, popping up whenever he needed me to do his bidding, or at least that was the way I viewed it.

We stepped outside of the club and the sharp cold air bit away at my skin but I didn't mind it, in a way it was refreshing.

Jace stopped and looked across the short distance between us and nodded his head to the left to which I shrugged. If he wanted something he was going to have to ask for it. "Around the corner, she'll scream..."

By the timing you would have thought it was planned. A loud scream echoed through the streets, a scream filled with horror and excruciating pain. It wouldn't last long, it never did. I sighed, slightly pissed off. Why did I have to be the one that ghosts followed and heckled until I did as they wanted? "This isn't my destiny.." But maybe it was.

I rounded the corner with my newly inherited super quick speedy feet and found myself witnessing an almost orgasmic sound coming from darkened corner of the alley way. "Gross.." Folding my arms across my chest, I frowned. "Are you done yet?"

"Go find your own." Came the response in a low throaty growl.

When it came to Strigoi, they... we... didn't tend to play well with others, it was case of what I liked to call only child syndrome. "Oh come on now, there's plenty enough to share." I quickly surveyed my opponent. Approximately six foot in height, well built was probably a big gym fan before his turning, dark cinnamon colored hair and a scent washed in blood.

He stopped abruptly and sniffed the air like a dog on a mission. Slowly he turned and peered at me over his shoulder, his bright red eyes boring directly down on me. "You smell different."

"I get that alot. I like to shower, wear a little perfume, you know keep up some kind of general hygiene...unlike some." My eyes scanned his torso as he turned his body to face me completely apparently to the annoyance of his meal, who let out a disappointed whimper.

The Strigoi turned back to look at the girl, clearly torn between the two of us which insulted me a little.

"Oh come on, a little rough and tumble with someone your equal and you might even get lucky." I joked, trying to bait him to me. "But then you might not...depends if you can handle it."

And with the dig at his manhood he was on me before I had a chance to move. He was quick throwing his well muscled arm around my neck, pulling by body tight up next to his. He brought his nose down and skimmed along my neck, inhaling. "You smell different." I felt his moist tongue glide across my skin which sent an open shiver down my spine.

"Yeah..." I struggled to speak as his arm tightened around my neck. My fingers tucked into the palm of my hand with my nails digging through my skin. "Well you smell just like the rest." I threw both of my elbows back and hit him hard in the abdomen, loosening his grip on me. I reached up grabbed the arm that was still around my neck and slowly tackled him for ownership of my own personal space. His arm slowly started to ease up and away from my neck and I grinned, spinning on my left heel while throwing him a right handed jab.

I jumped back from him and watched him stagger for the briefest of moments before he once again lunged at me, only this time I was prepared. I took a hold of the wrist that he aimed at my face and twisted it behind his back, hearing a very audible click as I pushed him up against the club's exterior wall. "Ouch, I think that was a shoulder pop.." I grinned and leaned up to whisper in his ear as he struggled against my hold. "You wanna know why I smell different?" He had commented on my scent, they all did before the time came... "It's because I am." And with one quick snoop, my mouth was on his neck and my fangs ripped through the layers of his flesh and sucked the undead life from him.

"Oh my god..."

The whimper came like a buzzing background noise as I fed. The mixture of human and Moroi blood made my mouth water as I dropped his lifeless body to the floor, closing my eyes and inhaling the beautiful scent.

"Rose?"

Cold water rushed over me as I turned and viewed for the first time the man's victim. Small face, curly hair, cute outfit... young, naive and Moroi. Her baby blues were framed with a confused brow as she looked up at me. "Mia." I licked the remaining blood from my lips and sighed. "You really shouldn't be here..."

--

Donned with some ultra cool, reflective lens aviators I strolled through the club with Mia in my arms, walking past and ignoring the collective stares we were receiving. Maybe it was because I was decked out in skinny jeans, black boots, leather jacket and wearing a pair of sunglasses in a nightclub or maybe it was the fact that a five foot six girl was carrying another girl through a club as though she were as light as a feather... and to be fair, she was.

We left the main foyer of the club and went into the back.

"Excuse me you can't go in there..."

"Uh huh." I kicked at the managers door which not only opened the wooden door but knocked it completely off of its hinges. Strolling inside I looked across at the well dressed Moroi man sat behind the managers desk and placed Mia down in the chair in front of the desk. "She needs a feeder, she's lost alot of blood."

"What happened?" He stood from behind the desk and approached the two of us. I took a couple of steps back so my back was against the wall. He examined her and then looked up at me with worried eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a little buzzed. There's a dead strigoi in the back alley way hidden behind a dumpster, I didn't have time to dispose of the body."

"Thank you..." He turned and faced his desk, pressing a button on the phone. "We need a first aid kit and a feeder in here." He turned back to face me, "You should probably go before..."

"A deal's a deal. I keep your customers safe and you keep me hidden. Although maybe now..." I looked down at an unconscious Mia, she had seen my face, she knew that I was still alive, or at least I was still around. "I should go, I wouldn't want to get either of us in any more trouble than we're already in."

"She can be compelled.." He offered up an alternative.

"No, it's cool... I shouldn't have stayed here so long anyway. But your offer was too good to pass up." I grinned recalling when he had come across me in a nightclub. Instead of calling backup telling them there was a Strigoi loose in the nightclub, he took me aside and offered me protection. I didn't question why he wanted to help me or even why he had no guardians surrounding his every move. I was new to being a member of the undead not to mention alone and confused. I kept my wits about me, readying myself for the day when he would send in guardians to kill me, I was prepared but that day had never come.

"Where will you go?" He asked.

"I'll stick around Missouri for now...I have people here I need to keep an eye on. But sooner or later, I'll have to move around." There was too much at risk for me to stay in one spot too long. Someone would uncover who I was and hunt me down, either Moroi or Strigoi. I made my way to the doorway and stopped midway through. "Thank you... for everything. I won't forget it, Abe..."

---


	2. Chapter 2

The basement had been my own little private lair for the past three weeks equipped with a standard military style metal framed bed, an old worn wooden desk furnished with a stereo and a small lamp shade that provided minimal light. All in all the basement was your typical run of the mill basic room except for the door. It was heavy, all steel with jigsaw style lock and three different catch mechanisms. Two minutes and thirty three seconds is what it took me to remove myself from the world and back into my own little safe haven.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me, quickly bolting the door in the process. Some nights I was careless, leaving the door unlocked and tempting fate. Some nights I wanted to be discovered and to be challenged, a part of me yearned for it, yearned for the fight was was inevitable. But not tonight; the past had caught up with me and it was hitting a little too close to home.

Kicking off my boots, I flicked the switch on the lamp and watched as the pitch black room lit up providing enough light so that I could drop the heightened abilities back a few notches and allow myself the chance to just relax. Switching on the stereo I closed my eyes as Metallica's cover of Whiskey in a Jar blasted through the poor quality speakers. It was the perfect kind of noise to block out any and all of my thoughts. I moved my body and head in beat to the guitar riffs and tried to release the built up tension flowing through my veins, usually a little hand to hand combat and feeding helped with the underlying tension but not tonight.

Moving across the room to the bed that held me captive during the day when humans walked the streets above, laughing and talking in the sunlight and the world I could no longer be a part of. I was stopped in my tracks by the box sitting on my bed, I sighed. It wasn't the first gift Abe had given me since asking me to be the so called protector of his night club, one of his many investments I had found out through casual snooping.

Every night without fail after my hunts, I would come back to the basement and find a present awaiting me. Usually it was clothes, jeans, jackets, boots and even a pair of reflector lens Ray Ban aviators which came in handy when trying to hide the demonic eyes I was sporting these days. But tonight the box was small. I walked over with a curious brow on my face, and opened the box. Inside was a beautiful white gold bangle, I knew it had to be white gold because giving me silver would have been quite possibly the most stupidest and dangerous thing he could do and he wasn't a stupid man. The bangle was beautiful and engraved with a crest I recognized from his briefcase and the gold ring he wore on his middle finger on his right hand.

I would have to ask him about that after tomorrows hunt, thought to myself as I lifted the box up and off the bed and placed it on the floor. The clothes had been I necessary, they helped me blend into the background or stand out depending on my motive for the night. But the bangle with what I presumed was his family crest? Just plain weird. But it was pretty and I was a sucker for nice jewelry, so I took it from the box and placed it on my wrist.

"_Now some men like a fishin' but some men like the fowlin'  
Some men like to hear, to hear the cannonball roarin'  
But me, I like sleepin', 'specially in my Molly's chamber  
But here I am in prison, here I am with a ball and chain, yeah"_

Throwing myself down on the bed, I closed my eyes hoping that sleep would take me soon so that I could drown myself with unconsciousness before thoughts of today could creep their way back into my head, before thoughts of my past could find their way back into my soul.

--

I stirred in the bed, my eyes were still closed but somehow felt lighter, freer. A small hidden smile touched my lips as I ran my hands through my soft, tangle free hair down the sides of my face and to the arm wrapped around my waist. My eyes opened, slowly, sleepily. They glanced down at the arm draped over my hip, it was pale but the contour of the muscles in his forearm very much evident. I was happy and content for the first time in a long while.

"Hello beautiful." His voiced tickled against the small hairs on the back of my neck. Crap.

It had been the first time since I had let my guard down and allowed myself to be invaded. Lissa's mind had been calling out to me, seeking me out whenever and wherever possible but I had been able to keep up a mental block but not after tonight. I cussed at Mia and her carelessness.

"Hey.." Her voice was soft, sweet and filled with love. "What time is it?" She asked looking around the attic of the church. Daylight was pouring through the multicolored stain glassed windows, lighting the room up with orange and red tones, making the scene all that more romantic. Gross, I thought.

"It's late." Christian rolled onto his back and Lissa rolled onto her side, her palm pressing against his chest. "We should head back soon..." He sighed, running his hand through her long golden blonde hair.

"But I don't want too." A frown touched her lips, her voice now filled with sorrow. This was her escape, her way of letting go of everything. She hated being at the school, she hated walking the corridors the two of us had once walked together. Even with Christian by her side, in the school she felt alone and afraid.

Christian rubbed her back in small circles, trying to soothe her nerves. "It'll all be alright, it takes time."

Lissa nodded but disagreed. She knew that he was trying to be supportive but it didn't help. Nothing helped. Glancing down at her wrist, she eyed the fresh cut marks and sighed. In the past when she cut her wrists the pain had helped her feel alive, but now she was numb to it, to everything. "It would have been Rose's birthday on Monday." She spoke in a low tone, almost not even wanting to acknowledge it. "I'm going to buy her something when we go into Missouri tomorrow, I know it sounds stupid... but she would have been eighteen." Her eyes became clouded over with the misty tears she tried to hard to keep at bay.

Eighteen. I frowned deep inside of her. Days and weeks no longer held any meaning to me, I would never be eighteen, I would forever remain seventeen and boy did that thought suck ass.

"Princess?"

Christian and Lissa both jumped startled by the voice calling out to them. They moved in a flurry to get their clothes on, while I remained completely still inside of her body. Unable to think or to move. I would have known that voice anywhere.

Just as he rounded the corner of the attic, Christian and Lissa had just made themselves as presentable as possible, some of their clothes thrown on backwards and angled in different directions. "Guardian Belikov.." Christian nodded to his elder out of respect while Lissa blushed with embarrassment at having been caught in this situation.

"The two of you need to return to your dorms," Dimitri stood there in all of his six foot seven glory. "And Lissa, Headmistress Kirova would like to speak to you."

Lissa shook her head, "No. I'm going tomorrow. It was arranged, she promised me that I could." A fire shot up deep within her, one that I hadn't seen in a long time. She needed to get away from the school, away from the memory of me, to escape for even the smallest amount of time.

"There have been security issues..." Dimitri was about to continue but Lissa's defiant head shake stopped him in his tracks.

"No. I'm going with or without protection. I'm eighteen years old." Lissa stood there determined. "I can do what I want." She sounded petulant and stubborn, a very well known trait of mine.

Dimitri simply nodded which made Lissa feel slightly guilty. She had spent alot of time with her future guardian in the past few weeks, so much so that she had noticed the changes in him. He was more protective of her than ever, constantly checking up on her to make sure she was okay. He had offered to take her to Missouri after having found her playing with broken glass inside of her shower.

These images came at me in quick succession, they were like daggers to the heart. Nothing and no one had touched me since I had turned, but watching him through her eyes and seeing the things that she could remember, well they were torture, pure and simple.

I pulled myself from her reality with all of my strength and woke up face to face with death.

--

"Your making the biggest mistake of your life." My tone was angry and filled with venom as I looked up at the man standing over my horizontal body, holding a silver stake inches from my heart. He didn't acknowledgement my words but instead swooped down with the stake in his hand to pierce my heart. My hands acted on their own, knocking his hand and the stake away from my body. I rolled out of bed, spun on my heels and rounded on his body. Jumping up, my arms wrapped around his neck and my legs around his waist. "The biggest." I echoed in his ear as I pulled harshly on his throat and weighed him back until he lost his balance and fell backwards.

I stepped away from his falling body and glanced over at the opened steel door. Either I had been far too engrossed in Lissa's dream which was highly possible given the fact that I hadn't dream walked for months or with his super secret guardian moves he had managed to unlock the door without me hearing... or worse, Abe had given him access.

The guardian flipped up and was once again on his feet. I gave him the quick once over which had once been described as the Rose Hathaway method. He was roughly six foot, light blonde hair, dark brown eyes and built like a machine.

"What no quick witted banter before you try and off a girl?" I frowned, disappointed that he didn't want to play. He had been the first guardian I had encountered and a part of me wished that there was going to be some dramatic showdown; he would recognize me and be faced with the dilemma of killing me. "It's kinda rude ya know," I said as we circled one another, each plotting our next attack. "Breaking down doors, trying to kill people. And apparently you're not very good at it, so you might want to reconsider your career path." A wicked grin touched my lips and that was enough to push him over the edge.

He struck forward with quick speed, throwing his left fist at my temple. I would have been able to duck it if I hadn't been so cocky but his fist hit my head and it hit it hard. I went down but recovered quickly, round housing him on the floor, taking his feet from him. I jumped to my feet and stepped over to his body before he had a chance to recover, and kicked the side of his head.

He was quick. But I was better. His eyes drooped shut with the force of impact and his body went lack with life as a breath exhaled from his unconscious body.

"Asshole." I walked across the room and slipped my feet inside of my boots, grabbed the back leather jacket from the chair in front of the desk and picked up the aviators. Glancing back over my shoulder, I looked at the bright, shiny silver stake in the corner of the room. It was calling out to me, pleading for me to show it some love and devotion. A frown touched my lips, it would make life simpler when it came to hunting. But then the pretty little weapon could also be used against me, given the chance. And besides, I didn't like things to be simple. I turned and skulked out of the basement ready to leave Abe and the club behind me but raised voices stopped me in my tracks and my curiosity got the better of me. Somehow that guardian had known there was something inside of the basement. Somehow he had managed to break through the clever door mechanism and had been able to hold a silver stake over my heart without me even realizing. And I wanted to know how.

Taking the stairs two at I time, I rushed up onto the ground floor of the club. Maneuvering silently through the corridors, I made me way to Abe's office. The wooden door which I had kicked off of its hinges earlier had been swiftly replaced by a new, matching door.

"How could you have been so reckless?" A woman's disparaging voice was cutting through the door, chastising Abe. Through my heightened senses I could tell that no blood had been spilt and Abe wasn't quivering in his boots, if anything I could taste a form of pleasure on my tongue. "Did you really think people wouldn't find out? You've been using compulsion on your customers so they wouldn't remember being attacked. But you missed a step and forgot about the puncture wounds, you've been reckless, so unlike you." Her tone turned confused, questioning. She was trying to understand.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the room and I could tell that the woman was short, weighed about a hundred and ten pounds, most of it muscle and she was wearing comfortable flats.

"Janine..."

Shock ran tingled its way through my body. What the f---.

The door opened and I found myself face to face with the woman who had formerly been my mother.

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	3. Chapter 3

It was a true polaroid moment, the illustrious, badass Janine Hathaway was standing before me with wide gawking eyes and a perfectly astonished mouth. It was an achievement, one I had never been able to accomplish when I had been the disobedient, wild child that could never live up to the expectations bestowed upon me in large part due to her legacy. "Wow, have I rendered the notorious Janine Hathaway speechless?" A small smirk played at my lips as her deer stunned eyes resumed their ice cold glare. "And she's back..."

"What the hell is going on?" The question wasn't directed at me despite her constant watchful gaze, it was aimed at Abe who was stood approximately five feet behind her. "Your..." She paused for once, deciding not to go for the direct, let's bitch slap Rose around. "Is this how you've been maintaining security?" She asked, again the question not directed at me.

"Janine, let me explain." Abe's tone was respectful and yet still held some of its authority, despite the present company. I had never known anyone to speak to my mother with that tone, any man that had dared question her usually left the conversation cowering with their tail between their legs and feeling castrated.

"No!" She almost yelled, defiantly. "This is unacceptable.." She shook her head with disgust as her eyes scanned my form. "You should have called me the minute you knew what she is.."

"And what's that?" I asked, interrupting what I imagined was going to turn into a battle of words between the two of them. "Unnatural?" I pulled myself away from the door frame and stood my ground. "A blood sucking creature of the night?" As I took a step into the room, my former mother took a step back. She was scared of me, scared of her own daughter. "So what are you going to do now, mom? Drive a stake through my heart?" I didn't mean to but the questions came out like a taunt, daring her to try.

"Janine, don't." Again with the authoritative tone. "She's not like the others." There was never any beating around the bush with Abe, he liked to jump straight in. Something the three of us had in common.

"She doesn't care," I retorted quickly. "Mommy dearest's morale compass doesn't allow for creatures of the night... they don't even allow her to form an emotional attachment to the child she gave birth to."

"Stop it," She shook her head but kept her ice cool glare planted directly on me. "Stop trying to sound like her. You think just because your inhabiting a shell of what used to be her body, because you took over her voice I'll be more compassionate? More understanding? Your wrong." She paused and then her tone turned icy to match her glare, "Your not the child I gave birth to."

"And how would you know?" I shot back quickly, trying not to be stung by her comment. I was different now; stronger, faster, I have to maintain a healthy diet of blood but that didn't mean I was completely different. The same banter was there, the same thoughts, or at least I thought so. I rarely thought about the semantics of having been changed, it was pointless. I couldn't go back to being the little hardass dhamphir. I was now until someone staked or beheaded me, a born again Strigoi. "You were never there. As soon as I was able to walk you shipped me off to school, I could see it in your face even then how much you didn't want me, how much I was holding you back from being the indestructible Janine Hathaway." I could tell she was trying hard to not let my words effect her but her ears extended back slightly and brow furrowed for the briefest of moments. "What about my sabbatical from school? Did you even try looking for me? Did you even care that I had gone missing? Oh.. wait, I forgot that would be a normal mothers reaction. I was old enough to walk and talk back, so I could deal with the big bad world, isn't that right?" Emotions hadn't controlled me since I had been turned, I had always been able to close them down but hello, open flood gates. "Did you try to save me that day in the caves? Did you even cry when you found out that I was dead?"

"Rose, enough!" Abe's tone changed, it was demanding. He had never officially told me what to do, just suggestions but he was telling me to stop baiting my mother. "Your mother isn't here to hurt you.."

"Right, tell that to the unconscious moron who tried to stake me in my sleep downstairs."

"He's alive?" My mother asked disbelievingly.

"I didn't see a blood donor card in his wallet, so I thought it'd be rude just to drink and run. My mother raised me better than that.. oh wait, she wasn't around.." The mocking tone must have been the final thing to send my mother over the edge, quick like a cat she leapt from her defensive stature and lashed out towards me.

But I was faster, always faster. I side stepped quick enough so I managed to get behind her. My hands grabbed ahold of her wrists pinning her up against the wall, rendering her incapable of another attack.

"Now what?" She asked struggling against my hold.

"Now this..." I pulled her back away from the wall before sending her face first back against it and hard. Her body went slack as she lost consciousness, I gently laid her body down on the floor. There was no point in causing any more bruises, she was gonna have a nasty cut and bruise on her forehead.

Abe rushed over to us, bending down in his expensive Armani suit and pressed his index and middle finger to the side of her neck, checking her pulse.

"Don't worry, she's still breathing." I jumped up to my feet and took a step back, tilting my head looking over my mothers sleep filled body. "But that totally felt gratifying.." And it did. Years of built up tension between the two of us, not to mention the black eye she gave me last year during a sparing practice. "When she wakes up though, your gonna have to work some serious mad eyed hypno crap on her because if she still knows I'm out there... well, I'm screwed."

"She'll understand..." He turned his head and regarded me seriously, "She's your mother."

"If that's what you call it." I had been about to go into a long spew of how she had never really been my mother, but just a vessel. She had never wanted me, she had been stupid enough to fall head over heels in love with a Moroi that left her with a bad mouthed, bad attitude spawn of satan.

"I understand.."

"That's because your the lord of the underworld or something. I'm not sure what your gig is here, Abe, God knows I've tried to figure it out... but for some reason your hell bent on offering me.. everything." My brow furrowed as I tried to once again to connect the dots, there had to be more to the story than him just wanting some protection for one of his many business investments. He had been the one to seek me out.

Abe glanced down at my mother before meeting my gaze again. "I know your mother very well, Rose. She's a hard nosed woman which is where I am positive you get your wonderful traits from..." He paused the hint of a smirk playing at the corner of his lips as he was probably comparing the so called beautiful traits my mother shared. His brow furrowed as his train of thought changed, "She will understand."

"You obviously don't know her that well." I took in a deep breath, willing the newly formed clouds of emotional clutter to evaporate. "Listen, I should go and grab my stuff before Rambo wakes up downstairs.. but thank you for everything."

"Wait.." Abe stood up and walked over to his desk, grabbing one of his business cards from the desk. "If you need anything and by anything, I mean a private jet to take you anywhere if you get in any trouble..If you get in any trouble that you can't get yourself out of, you call me." He turned around and handed my the card. Again, he was asking me to call him, he was telling me that I had better call him.

"You'll regret saying that," I smirked and explained myself, "Trouble seems to follow me around."

Before we could engage in any more conversation, before he could for god knows what reason try to lure me to stay, I walked out of the room and headed downstairs back to what had been my room. In a flash all of my belongings were thrown into a black holdall, all the new clothes and accessories Abe had bought for me so that I would be able to fit in better with the night club crowd. I picked up the ray ban aviators from the table and slid them on over my face to cover my shop stopping irises and bolted from the club that had been my home and work place for the past three weeks.

--

I shouldn't have been here. It was wrong, completely out of character for the new Rose Hathaway. By nature the majority of Strigoi hid in the shadows of the night, waiting and watching, the others, well, they had a tendency to put on a show. Once in the Queen's court, a Strigoi had managed to bypass the the security system and had managed to kill three Royal Moroi in the slap smack in the middle of the square, for all to see. It had taken four guardians to incapacitate him and even then they didn't walk away without injury. I had done my best to shy away from the spotlight, I had become a statistic of the majority - only my prey wasn't weak or incapable of fighting back

. Abe had given my structure in a life where I thought none was possible; I slept during the day and then by the darkened skies I was a walking, talking vixen of the night, hunting those who dare disturb the balance set in place. Abe's club had been a central point for Strigoi hunting, its location in the city center had meant that it was accessible to all and was often used by Moroi for socializing and for business. So maybe in a way, I had put myself out there, waiting to be discovered...but nothing like this.

The bright lights reflected off of the marble floors making the indoor mall feel like a mirrored prism and it was giving me a headache. I slipped the aviators down the bridge of my nose slightly so I could assess the situation with my own eyes. It was remarkable to compare the the attitudes of the Moroi to the Humans. Humans were scurrying around like little rodents trapped in a cage, while the Moroi were going about their business in a snail like pace, knowing full well that the day was just beginning for them. It was as Alberta, the captain of guards back at the academy used to say that it was the time designated as prime time hour, the time when an attack was most likely to occur.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. "Are you stalking me?" A grin touched my lips as I turned and faced the almost translucent, beautiful faced teenage boy who was stood beside me. He was leant against the railings watching people go about their daily business, just as I had been.

He turned his attention to me and grinned. "You wish." Jace had been the only ghost that I had met who actually talked back to me when I asked him questions, which proved that they could in fact hold down a conversation they were just trying to remain all mysterious.

"So what's the deal, ghost boy... is there a big bad near by, other than yours truly?" I studied his appearance. They always looked the same when they came to me but then what were they going to do? Run home, get changed, comb their hair and come back looking all fresh and new? Of course not, they were dead.

Jace shrugged in response to my question. He turned back and watched the floors beneath us. "Why are you here?"

"You know why..." I turned in my heels and leaned against the railings, joining him. "Which begs the question, why are you?" My brow furrowed as the realization hit me, I was here to see someone in particular. Jace and the others only tended to show their faces when my brothers in blood were around causing havoc. "How many?"

He shrugged "I'm not sure...I just know they're here, or they will be."

"Well that's just great," The sarcasm was dripping from my voice as I contemplated the situation. She would be fine, it's not like she was coming here alone. She would be guarded by the finest guardians the academy had to offer... the same guardians that had left me for dead in the caves. My eyes narrowed in on the corner of the mall, first floor. To everyone else they would just look like the young and beautiful, something californian which wouldn't make them stand out particularly if were in california. But we weren't. We were in Missouri where strikingly beautiful people got noticed and she was strikingly beautiful. I had almost forgotten how much so.

"Your not prepared..." I turned to Jace just as his form disappeared from sight. He was right. I wasn't prepared, not in the slightest. I had no idea how many guardians were patrolling the outer perimeter. I hadn't swept the mall for Strigoi upon arrival, I had been too blind sided by the fact that I would see her, in person. The anticipation had knocked my other senses from me, I had always been careful, even while facing down with my mother earlier, I had managed to keep my guard up. But now my emotions were getting the better of me.

I grabbed my bag from the floor and made my way to the exit for the car park. My legs moved faster than I thought possible to the valet station as I swooped inside and grabbed the first set of car keys my fingers touched. I looked down at the key ring and made my way to space 154. I didn't know much about cars, but it was sleek, shiny and sporty looking so I figured it was a fast car. I threw my bag into the trunk of the car and slotted the electronic key into my jean pockets. I wouldn't hurt to have a plan for a quick getaway.

There hadn't been a plan of action following my bright idea of coming to the mall. After having visited Lissa yesterday through the blood bond we still apparently shared, it was as if I needed to see her, like I was a crack addict and she the perfect drug to soothe my addiction. I hadn't thought any of this through and yet despite all of the negatives waging against me, I was still here. I paused at the door leading back onto the mall's floor, my ears perked slightly.

"Lissa, where are you going?" I recognized the male voice, it belonged to Christian Ozera, Lissa's often pain in the ass boyfriend. I closed my eyes and rested my hand against the closed door, concentrating on my enhanced hearing abilities. It was amazing how my ears were automatically attuned to their voices, picking them out from the rest of the background noise.

"Victoria's Secret... I need some new lingerie." I could hear the playfulness in her voice, she was taunting him. "I'm gonna use my .. um, gift to get some alone time. I don't particularly want one of them following me around." Lissa's tone shocked me, she had always shown the upmost respect for Guardians but her voice was dripping with disdain. She turned in what I could make out was flat pumps, there was no squeak from a heal and flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder. "Guardian Jones, I will be going to Macy's... go there first and do a sweep and wait for me in the shoe department."

"Ok." The female guardian, whose voice or name I didn't recognise followed Lissa's command without hesitation.

"You shouldn't do that!" Christian chided her for her use of compulsion. "What happens if they find out?"

"Nothing.. the same thing that always happens." She sighed and moved forward and planted a wet, sloppy kiss on Christian's cheek before skipping away from him.

I opened the door and stepped back inside the mall, wincing under my sunglasses at the harsh, bright lighting. My feet moved on their own accord but instead of moving at my usual quickened speed, I was half assing it in an attempt to appear more... normal. Victoria's Secret was located on the ground floor, and as far as I could sense Lissa's little protector was nowhere to be seen. Moving quickly inside the store, my eyes scanned the area for Lissa. My ears perked again slightly trying to pick out her heartbeat, her breathing, anything that would give me a sense of where she was.

"Hi, Welcome to Victoria's Secret. We have a wonderful promotion on.."

The bright and bubbly woman stopped speaking when I turned to glare at her, even without seeing the intense gaze of my eyes she was taken aback by my facial expression. "I'm good thank you," I responded trying to appear cordially, not wanting to gather attention. "I'm just looking for my friend.." I unearthed a cute smile, one that I hadn't used in...well since before I had died.

"Ok, well if you need anything my name is Gemma..."

The sales assistant became background noise as I moved to the dressing rooms and bypassed the lady standing at the entrance like a guard, with my ultra quick strigoi speed.

I stopped outside of her dressing room and tapped twice.

"I'm ok thank you..."

I opened the door and stepped inside. She was facing the mirror, in a matching pink bra and booty shorts.

"Lissa..."

Her eyes went wide in the mirror as they met my gaze.

"Don't freak out..."


	4. Chapter 4

Her pale jade eyes went wide with shock, she opened her mouth to scream but no sound escaped as I moved up behind her in one swift movement and threw the palm of my hand against her mouth. She struggled only slightly against my grip, not as much as she should have considering I was no longer her protector but a possible hunter.

"What part of don't freak out don't you understand?" I sighed and rolled my eyes, easily irritated by the smallest of things.

"It can't be.." She mumbled against my palm, wetting it with her moist lips.

"What can I say?" I shrugged letting go of her mouth allowing her to turn around and face me inside the dressing cubicle. "Even in death, I still like to be surprising." Through the bond, I could sense her emotions spiraling out of control. I touched my hand to my head and closed my eyes for the briefest of moments. "Could you not think so much.." I snapped, "It's hurting my head."

Instead of scolding me for talking to her with a snotty attitude or being astounded that even in death we still shared the blood bond, she took a step closer to me her eyes searching mine before she enveloped me into a hug. Her long arms wrapped around my neck and she brought herself closer to me. "I've missed you so much." She said her voice trembling as she held back the tears that wanted to escape. "I've been so broken and lost without you." She considered me her anchor in life and still now, even in death.

I wanted to take solace in her arms, to tell her that everything was going to be ok. That I too had missed her, but I couldn't. I wasn't here to be her best friend, that part of me had died when a set of Strigoi fans ripped through my flesh of skin and drained the life from me. Unhooking myself from her embrace, I eyed her carefully. "We need to get you out of here. There's going to be an ambush. Your the target." I spoke to her with such candidacy, something I would never have done back when I had been little novice Rose Hathaway.

"Ok." And just like that with no questions she stepped into her jeans and pulled them up over her toned long legs allowing them to rest on her hips. She bent down and picked the checked button down shirt up off the floor and threw it on over her head.

I turned in the cubicle and pulled the curtain back. There standing before me was the female guardian who had been assigned to Lissa.

"What-" She didn't finish whatever it was she was about to say. Instead she extended her right arm out, fist clenched and aimed for my face.

Grabbing ahold of her wrist, I turned her around and pulled her body up against my own. "Watch the face, it's too pretty to hit." She struggled against my grip but not enough to stop me from wrapping my arm around her neck, pressing down on her wind pipes. I didn't have time or the inclination to engage in a fight with a guardian. Within a minute she was unconscious in my arms. I looked over my shoulder at Lissa, who was standing in the corner of the cubicle bitting on her bottom lip clenching her fists together. "Move outside."

She did as I asked and stepped past me and her unconscious guardian. I pulled her body into the changing room and dropped her in the corner where Lissa had been standing. "Really crack team you've got there." I said with an undercurrent of disappointment lacing my tone. Stepping outside of the cubicle I pulled the curtain closed to hide her body. "I mean really.. that's what they send you out with?" I frowned, feeling the anger boil beneath my skin. What would have happened if little miss unconscious had encountered not one strigoi but a pack of? She didn't put up much of a fight, in fact she had barely thrown a decent punch.

"They also sent me with..." She was about to say Dimitri but she paused. I had never told Lissa about my feelings for Dimitri, in the time we had been back at the academy together she had never once suspected anything, at least until my passing. She remembered the memorial held for me after the cave incident, she remembered seeing Dimitri, quiet, solemn and broken.

"Please don't.." I begged, not wanting to see or experience anything she was feeling. I cussed myself for allowing emotion to seep through and expose itself. I couldn't allow myself to be weak, I needed to be strong. My eyes turned cold and I snapped. "The walk down memory lane is closed, we need to go now." Still without hesitation she followed me out of the dressing room, I glanced around the store quickly taking in as much as I could. It was all clear. Linking my arm through hers, I turned and whispered to her. "I'm gonna get you out of here."

"Where are we gonna go?" She asked finally curiosity coming alive deep inside of her. She didn't care that I was her immortal enemy, she didn't care that I might be luring her off to some dark hole deep somewhere to finish of the Dragomir line. No all, she could care about was that I was here with her and that she didn't want to lose me again.

I took the Ray Ban sunglasses from my pocket and put them on to covers my blood red eyes. "You can't go back to _that _school." I spoke with such disdain. Sure the academy had been more of a home for me than anywhere else having spent the better part of my youth there, but it had also been the place where I had met my demise because of their crack ass security. "There are spies inside and out leaking information to the Strigoi." I said, speaking again with the same candor as before. There was no point white washing anything, she needed to know what the outside world was like and what its plan for her was. "Don't worry..." I said as we stepped outside of the store. Before I could finish my sentence, my supernatural senses kicked in. My ears perked, my nostrils twitched and my eyes widened. I grabbed Lissa by the shoulders and threw her to the side, pushing her up against the shop wall. I turned just in time to feel the end of a sharp silver blade strike the side of my cheek.

"Princess.." I moved in-between Lissa and the six foot, snarling, fang bearing Strigoi. My eyes quickly took in his features. Sandy blond hair, arms that looked like they belonged on a steroid induced gym freak and blood red angry eyes, of course.

"I think that's the first time someone's called me that." I joked as he moved in to knock me out of the way. Apparently his senses weren't as attuned as my own. He thought he was trying to squash a fly when he was only pissing off a queen bee. "Now, now..." I warned.

My hands were the first to react. Blocking his path to Lissa, I took ahold of his wrist in both of my hands, squeezed and with one swift movement snapped it while taking the legs out from under him with a sweep kick. It was enough to slow him down, but not to stop him. He yelped from the combination of the break in his wrist and his body hitting the floor. "How many are there?" I asked, twisting his wrist further implementing more pain.

He shrugged in response, keeping his mouth closed probably to stop himself from yelping again. I twisted his arm further, he winced with pain and a low growl escaped his lips. "Se-ven.." He spat on my pretty new boots.

"I was going to use that pretty but archaic sword to end your life, a little dramatic I know but I am one for dramatics.." I said, getting off point. "But you spat on my new boots.." A punishment to fit the crime? No, but being around Lissa was going to need more energy. I bent down over his kneeling body, angled my mouth for his neck and tore through the layers of flesh covering his cold dead skin with my fangs. My taste buds came alive, this strigoi had recently had the trifecta; human, dhamphir and moroi blood. It was sipping on a beautiful cocktail and as his body went limp with the life undead life draining from him, the cocktail turned bitter.

"Rose..." Lissa's voice was shaken. Her emotions were intruding in on my high come down, her shock, horror and disgust over taking everything else. I sighed and closed my eyes and attempted to block out her judgmental voice from my head, I really didn't need to be lectured by someone whose feeding habits were almost identical. Hypocrite, I thought as I stood up distancing myself from the Strigoi that laid beneath my feet.

"What? Not a fan of my eating habits?" There was heavy sarcasm layering my voice. "I survive how you survive, except mine usually involves a little more violence." I wiped the blood from my lips and glanced over my shoulder.

"I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to.." She stuttered offering her apologies. She hadn't considered what I would have to do to survive as one of the undead. "I didn't think, I mean I knew you'd have to but it didn't really." She paused and her eyes widened as she looked past me. "Christian."

"Shit." Several things happened at once. A woman walking towards us stopped and screamed taking in the scene before her. The fire alarm sounded as warning for those inside to escape while they could. And Christian Ozera, Lissa's boyfriend decided he was going to play the role of her white knight. I felt his hands grip my shoulders and began to heat up.

I turned in my Strigoi soiled boots and faced him. His hands dropped from my shoulders and the heat that was emitting from them all together stopped. Much like Lissa's reaction, his eyes went wide with shock and his mouth opened. For once I had rendered the usually verbally abusive black listed moroi speechless.

"Close your mouth your drooling." I said with a smirk.

Unlike Lissa though, he was about to spring into action to pick up the role of white knight again. I stepped beside Lissa and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Think about what your going to do Ozera." If the warning in my voice and words weren't enough, my ice cold glare was.

Lissa stiffened beside me. She didn't look my way though, her eyes were on her boyfriend who was shooting glances between Lissa, my grip on her shoulder and me. "It's ok, Christian. It's Rose."  
Christian scoffed at that. "No, it's not. It's a demon riding around in her skin."

"But what pretty skin, right?" I added sarcastically. "I'm not here to debate the semantics." I was actually getting increasingly bored with the conversation. This hadn't been a part of my plan at all. I should have stayed in the shadows, watching and waiting for the imminent attack, but like usual my curiosity got the better of me. And as usual, I was in trouble for it.

"Christian please.." Lissa's eyes were pleading with him. "Come with us."

"Your going with her willingly?" Christian asked, his voice raised. He was dumbfounded. "That's NOT Rose," He said pointing at me as if she was looking somewhere else. He looked down at the floor and the dead Strigoi that I had minutes ago killed. "One of your many minions?" He asked.

A laugh escaped my mouth. "Seriously, minions?" Another laugh. What did he think I was some big deal in the underworld, that I had minions. Well that told me two things; he thought I was powerful enough to wield a following and that he was also still as skeptical as ever.

I took in a deep breath. "As much fun as this has been.." A sigh escaped my lips and I frowned again at Christian. "Don't think I don't know what your doing.."

"And what am I doing?" He asked, playing dumb.

"Stalling so Belikov can sneak up behind me and plant that pretty little silver stake he's holding in the back of my heart." I spoke calmly and yet my emotions were anything but. "Always a backstabber huh.. I wonder where you get that traitorsess trait from." Christian and I had never come to blows physically but we had always abused each other verbally. And I had just hit a winner, right below the belt. It was well known among the moroi world what his parents had done, how they had given up everything and sold out. Needless to say it was a sore point with junior over there.

"Lissa step away.." Dimitri's stern voice was behind me. And while it was rougher than usual, it was still like sweet honey to my ears.

"And why would she do that, comrade?" I asked, turning in my boots, hand still on her shoulder. "So you can kill her best friend... again?"

Now it was my turn to buy some time.


	5. Chapter 5

According to this month's Cosmopolitan magazine there are four semi easy steps to get your man to forgive you; Give him room, Don't out argue him, Stroke his ego and be tough on yourself because somewhere deep down you deserve punishment for upsetting him on some level. I wonder what the steps are for getting your ex somewhat boyfriend, one time lover and soul mate to forgive you for saving his life and ultimately turning yourself albeit not intentionally into one of the world's dangerous predators. Somehow I didn't think hallmark made the I'm sorry I turned myself into your immortal enemy card.

"Lissa," Dimitri's dark well trained gaze stayed directly on me as he spoke to her, "Step away from _her_" His words were not necessarily harsh considering the predicament we found ourselves in but the tone of his voice was ice cold. If it weren't for those beautiful dark irises that sparked to life for the briefest of moments upon laying eyes on me then I would have thought he no longer truly cared for me.

"Her?" I asked with a frown, already he was pissing me off acting all superior as per usual. "I have a name!" It had always been one of my mother's pet peeves when people referred to other people as her or him, she thought it was a sign of disrespect but in this case I was willing to bet that he probably didn't want to associate my name with my new life. "Maybe you remember moaning it in my ear the night before I died." There was no need to turn around, the sharp intake of breath was a clear indication that Christian hadn't been expecting that. Lissa on the other hand I could tell through her emotions wasn't shocked, more embarrassed at hearing about her guardian and best friend.

_Rose, be careful. _She warned me through the bond, willing me not to push my limits with my former teacher. "Dimitri, it's fine." Lissa flashed a comforting pearly white optimistic smile in his direction. "She won't hurt me." As soon as the words were uttered from her mouth, she believed them with her mind, body and soul. She still had complete and utter faith in me, it was nice to know that one of us did.

Dimitri having decided that Lissa was wrong made a beeline for her. I had almost forgotten how fast he was. He sprinted across the short distance between us, planting himself between Lissa and I, forcefully removing any kind of physical contact that we were sharing. He threw his palms flat out, pushed on my chest and would have knocked me back a couple of feet if I had still been his student and a dhamphir, but I was beyond that now. He was fast, but I was faster.

"Always trying to cop a feel huh, comrade?" I joked as our eyes met. His eyes widened as my hands reached around and grabbed ahold of his forearms struggling for control. I pushed back on him with enough force that his back hit the wall of victoria secret and made a very audible thud. Even with his extensive experience, height and weight against me, I wasn't worried for my safety in the slightest. "Stop trying to hit me and hit me," I said standing on my tip toes, trying to whisper in his ear unsuccessfully as he had almost a perfect foot on me.

He didn't need to be told twice. Struggling against my grip, he pushed back with enough force this time to actual cause me to lose my balance for a moment. He took the opportunity and broke free from my hold and threw a right hook at my face. Being a little slow on the uptake his fist connected against my cheek and I immediately regretted baiting him. "You're not _her_" He said again, this time trying to convince himself. "You're not my Roza" He added in a barely audible voice.

Whatever quick whip that was going to come out of my mouth died on my lips at that. As much as I had told myself over the past two months that I was no longer that girl, it was heartbreaking to hear him say it. Something deep inside of me snapped and the blood beneath my skin felt like it was boiling to the surface seeking a way out. As he went to strike me again with another right hook to the face, I threw my arm up in the air blocking his attack successfully. "Go to hell," I pulled my arms into my chest and kicked out with as much force as I could muster. My right foot hit him square in the chest and once again knocked him back against the Victoria Secret wall.

Moving at lightning speed I was behind Lissa in a second, arm around her neck holding her in a deadlock position. I kicked out behind me and knocked Christian out of the way. Dimitri was on his feet within seconds but paused in hi steps as I leaned my face in closer to Lissa's neck. "Don't move.." I warned him tightening my arm around her neck causing her to squeal slightly from the pain. "And don't even think about it," I said looking over my shoulder quickly at Christian like I could read his mind. Readjusting myself, I moved my arm from her neck and instead replaced it with my hand, gripping her neck firmly. "Don't start a fire unless you want me to put it out with her corpse."

It was a lie of course but neither of them knew that, proving that neither of them thought that any part of my former self lived on in this new cocoon of a body I inhabited. Feeling a little insulted I was all but ready to bitch the two of them out for their lack of faith but was stopped by the appearance of Jace who was standing by the railings, looking down at the ground level. He turned and looked at me and shook his head sadly. Leaning in closer to Lissa, I took the electronic car key from my jeans pocket and with the free hand that wasn't pressing against her jugular used it to drop the key into her left hand. "Load A, Parking Spot 154. It's the expensive looking black sports car." I whispered into her ear.

"What are you doing?" Dimitri asked confused having heard every part of that conversation. He was still standing in a defensive stance but his guard was let down by the fact that I was giving Lissa information on our getaway route. "Lissa don't go."

"Lissa..." I said and watched as she turned to look over her shoulder at me. Her blue eyes were sparkling with fear from the concern in my voice. Up until now I had done a very good job at maintaining a cold, heartless bitch facade but the jig was up. "Go.. now." My hand slipped away from her throat and like the ever trusting best friend she moved without hesitation. Dimitri was about to move in front of her to stop her but like I was caught up in the sound of screaming coming from the ground floor.

"Looks like the party started a little early," I sighed and reached into my jacket pockets pulling out a pair of black leather gloves, slipping them on over my hands. Christian didn't wait around to see what was happening, he sprinted after Lissa to protect her something that Dimitri was too about to do.

"What have you done?" He asked looking over at me, searching for answers.

I frowned at the question. Now he was definitely pissing me off. "I didn't do anything, blame your school's lack of security for a breach in protocol. Someone's been leaking out inside information to the highest bidder."

Dimitri turned in his heels ready to take of at Lissa, after all she was his number one priority but stopped dead in his tracks when a Strigoi somehow managed to jump from the ground floor up onto our floor. He landed in between Dimitri and the exit Lissa had gone out of. Dimitri pulled out the silver stake he had tucked inside of his brown leather duster and eyed the Strigoi.

"Pissing contest, boys?" I asked cheekily. The Strigoi turned and looked at me, caught off guard by the presence of another one of his kind no doubt. It gave Dimitri the opportunity he needed. He moved swiftly in front of the blonde hair Strigoi and had almost in one swift movement managed to get the stake within a couple of inches of the Strigoi's chest but like me, the Strigoi was just a little bit faster. He blocked Dimitri's aim and knocked the silver stake from his hand.

"Dirty little half blood." He spat on Dimitri and pushed back on him. I assessed the situation quickly, the Strigoi looked a little more worn around the eyes than the others I had been up against and the fact that he called Dimitri a dirty little half blood meant that he was an older Strigoi which meant more years to accumulate blood and power. The Strigoi managed to get past Dimitri's best self defense moves and pinned him up against the wall as if it were nothing. It was definitely not nothing.

"A pissing contest," I repeat and moved up behind the Strigoi jumping on his back a little playfully. "Mind if I join in boys?" I swiftly moved my head in towards his neck for the bite that would paralyze him but he reached around, tugged at my hair a little too forcefully and pulled me off of his back throwing me five feet down the hallway, closer to the exit.

"Traitress little bitch," He spat at me with the same hostility he had for Dimitri. Apparently there was no love for his own kind who were turn coats. Before I could blink or move, he had moved across to me lifted me up from the floor and held me like a rag doll in the air. He took one quick deep sniff in the air and frowned repulsed by me "You feed on your own kind, let's see how you like it." He moved his head in towards my neck, opened his mouth and bit down hard on my shoulder.

I screamed out in pain as his fangs ripped through the layers of undead flesh as he began to drink from me. He was too busy enjoying himself to notice that Dimitri was once again on his feet and standing directly behind him. Within a flash, he whipped out his stake and plunged it into the back of the Strigoi, plunging deep to hit the mark.

His bite died on my neck and his grip slackened enough for me to break free from his grip to stand on my own two feet. Dimitri not one to miss an opportunity, plunged the stake in further and mumbled something in Russian that I didn't understand. Pulling the stake out from his back, Dimitri took his hands off of the Strigoi and let him fall to the floor between us.

"What now?" I asked reaching up to cover the bite with my hand. I would heal within a few minutes but I didn't want to lose too much blood, it would just mean I would have to feed sooner than what I would like. "Are you going to try and stake me, Dimitri?" Try being the word. There was no way I was going down without a fight. Instead of waiting for his answer, I went to move past him but he wasn't having any of that. He threw his fist against the wall blocking my path to the exit, "You're not my Roza..." He repeated for the second time, this time looking for my response.

I sighed sadly, there was no escaping it. Sure I may have built up walls to protect myself from getting hurt but he had always managed to get under my skin despite anything, and the same could be said about me for him. "I am," I replied truthfully. I didn't need to look over my shoulder to know that other guardians were fast approaching us. "And I'm sorry.." I leaned up and kissed his cheek before throwing my entire power behind a right hook to knock him down and keep him down while I made my escape to meet up with Lissa.


	6. Chapter 6

Friendships are often divided when a guy enters the picture. In my experience there are two different types of girls; the girls who when involved with a guy lose all sense of rational behaviour and become so completely immersed in their boyfriend that they forget about the girls who stood by their side during previous heartache. And then there are the girls who can balance the two equally without too much disturbance being caused. Lissa somehow managed to tow the line perfectly, I on the other hand had no such luck. My relationship with Dimitri was doomed from the beginning; I was a student, he my teacher. He was Lissa's guardian, I was her guardian in training.

I felt her fear before I heard her scream, it rocketed through me. My pace quickened and I sprinted through the darkened car park over to the black sleek sports car I had commandeered earlier in the evening. My hands slipped into the black leather jacket I was wearing and I pulled out a matching pair of gloves, quickly slipping them on my fingers as I made my way towards the commotion.

"BACK OFF!" Christian yelled, his voice echoing through the parking lot. As I rounded the corner, I saw him take a defensive stance in front of Lissa. He was protecting her from two Strigoi. As one of them made a move towards them, the attacking Strigoi came to a halt and began screeching as his jacket caught alight. The Strigoi turned on his heels and tried to pat the flames down only to have his other arm catch fire.

"Fire brat." The second Strigoi had slipped past the first and made his move on Christian. The Strigoi wrapped his pale hands around Christian's neck, squeezed and then threw him across the parking lot, throwing him into a parked car.

Running up behind the first Strigoi, I pulled a silver stake out from the slip inside my leather jacket and carefully handled it with my gloves striking the Strigoi in the back, tilting the stake up at an angle to hit the heart. His screeching halted and his body went limp within seconds, the fire burning out as his lifeless body hit the floor.

Lissa backed away against the black sports car and I squared up to the remaining Strigoi. "How do you wanna do this?" I asked, as we circled one another. "You tell me whose behind this wonderful little set up and I make this a quick and easy kill.. or you hold out on me and I get to torture it out of you..." A twisted grin touched my lips as I considered the torturous process he would endure under my touch. "I know which one I'm hoping for."

"You think you can win?" He spat at me. "Your one little girl, we are many."

"This isn't a pissing contest and even if it was you'd still come up short, bucko." I leapt across the small distance separating us and thrusted the stake, aiming for his heart. It was a sloppy move on my part, he dodged the stake and knocked the stake from my grasp, taking my arm in his grip and he spun me around and slammed me up against the car.

Bending down, he sniffed my along my neck and whispered in my ear. "Victor Dashkov sends his regards and his sympathies over having to kill you, Miss Hathaway."

I froze momentarily absorbing the information. Victor? He was in jail, or at least he was supposed to be. He couldn't have escaped; I would have heard through the grapevine so to speak. Gossip travels fast especially in Moroi, Dhamphir circles. Abe would have told me. As he moved in for the bite, I threw my head back knocking him off of me completely. I turned around quickly, pivoted on my left foot and followed it through with a right roundhouse kick to his face. "You might wanna hold onto those sympathies..." I said looking down on him, grabbing ahold of his shoulder with my left hand and throwing several right hooks down, hitting his face multiple times, doing my best to give him a free face transplant.

"Rose..." Lissa reached out to me through the bond, trying to center me with calming feeling. I turned and glared at her, I didn't need or want her influence. "It's ok.." She said ignoring my glare, "I'm ok, I'm safe now.. let's go."

I turned back and glared down at the Strigoi who half lay on the floor, bloodied and beaten. "You send a message to Victor," I leaned down and whispered into his ear. "Rose Hathaway is coming for blood and bringing death with her... actually you know what, I think that's something I can deliver to him in person." Standing up, I lifted my right leg in the air, bent it and slammed my heal down into his face, the silver heel cutting through his skin like butter.

I walked over and picked up the silver stake, tucking it back into the slip inside my jacket. Christian was still sprawled out against the car he had been thrown into; he was slowly coming to. "We should leave him here," I said looking down at his weak Moroi body; I didn't particularly want to babysit two Moroi especially one who could set me on fire within the blink of an eye. "It'll be safer for him here," I said turning back to look over my shoulder at Lissa.

"She's safer with me around." Christian muttered grabbed ahold of the car, trying to pick himself up on the floor. "It's not like you can be trusted. We should just wait for the guardians to come find us, which I imagine will only be a matter of minutes and then let them do what they will with her."

"I just saved your life, ungrateful git." I bent down and pulled on his shoulder lifting to his feet with ease.

"It really is just like old times," Lissa sighed at the bickering between Christian and myself. Lissa turned her jade green eyes on her boyfriend and smiled lightly, "I'm going with Rose, I trust her, she can keep me safe." This was a side of Lissa I hadn't seen in a while, determined, headstrong, passionate. "She can keep us safe," She amended including Christian into the mix. "Either you come or you don't, but either way I'm going."

Christian looked between the two of us and shook his head with disgust. "Then we had better get out of here before your ex runs in to save the day." He spoke bitterly to me.

"Watch it." I said, following him to the black sports car. Pulling out the keys, I clicked the doors open and we all climbed in. Christian slid into the cramped barely there backseat, Lissa climbed into the passengers side and I jumped into the driver's seat. Turning the keys in the exhaust, I revved the car as I reversed out of the parking spot. Just as I was about to put my foot on the gas, I saw Dimitri in the rear view mirror. I pressed my foot to the gas, spun the wheels and screeched as we sped out of the parking lot, living my ex lover in the darkness to clean up my mess.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxo

We had been driving for a couple of hours, I hadn't been driving in any particular direction. I stuck to the back roads of the city, knowing full well that a security alert would have been sent out through and Lissa would be on every guardian's watch list. Maybe my actions had been rash but I couldn't sit back and do nothing; at least now I knew he was behind the attack.

"Think we can pull over any time this century?" Christian moaned from the backseat like a child, "I'm getting hungry and irritable."

"Getting?" I retorted quickly. He had always been irritable, it was just in his nature.

"Do you even know where your going? Do you have a plan? Or was this it? To kidnap us and drive around aimlessly until you figured it out?" He asked, hitting a little too close to home. I didn't have a plan, I never planned anything but then that was my nature as he well knew. Christian leaned forward on Lissa's chair and looked at her for what? Compassion? Understanding? "We should just go back, we can be better protected there, we are safe there."

I threw my foot down on the breaks and we came to a complete standstill in a deserted alley way. I turned and glared over my shoulder at Christian who was cowering back in his seat a little but still had that defiant pissed off, glare fixated upon his face. "If you are so safe, how did a little troop of Strigoi manage to break through your guardians defensives? If you are so safe, how did I get through so easily? It wasn't hard to knock that little bitch unconscious back at the mall and if it hadn't been me who had broken through first, they could have taken Lissa or worse, do you know how easy it is to snap a Moroi's neck?" I clicked my fingers in his face, "That's how easy. You wanna think your safe, fine.. live in denial, it's fricken river in Egypt."

I turned back and started the car back up, pressing my foot down on the gas a little too roughly.

"He's just worried about me." Lissa sighed twiddling her thumbs in the front seat, nervously. "He knows you can keep me safe, and I know you can." She said with complete and utter faith in me.

I sighed, how naive she was. I naive I had once been.

It was almost dawn and I couldn't keep driving. I ended up at the only place in the city I had felt almost safe since I had been turned. Parking in the alley way outside of the club, I stepped out of the car and looked across as Lissa stepped out too. The night was winding down so the club was beginning to empty with dawn approaching.

"Where are we?" Lissa asked.

"Some place safe." I responded and pulled out my ray ban reflective lens and slipped them on my face, covering my blood red irises. "Come on." I turned and walked away from the car, slipping through the alley way into the back of the club. I nodded to one of the bouncers whom I recognized from my stint here as a Strigoi bouncer of sorts. "Is Abe in?" I asked as we passed, he simply nodded.

Before we had a chance to approach his office, Abe stepped in front of the three of us, his eyes widened with shock. "Do you know how many people are looking for you right now?" He scolded me, as though he were my father and I had been caught sneaking back after curfew. "The attack has been all over the news.." He looked from Lissa to Christian and then back to me.

"Look we can go if it's too..."

He cut me off before I had a chance to finish. "No, no. Your staying. I told you that you were safe here and you are." He shook his head and rolled his eyes at the three of us. "There are guest bedrooms upstairs." He spoke to Lissa and Christian, "You can use them to clean up and rest."

Lissa looked at me and I nodded for her to go. She and Christian followed one of the bouncers out of the hallway and headed up to the guest bedroom. Abe turned back and looked at me, with a raised brow. "So that's your idea of staying under the radar?"

"I had to." Yawning I looked across the hallway to where Lissa and Christian had just disappeared to. "They'll be safe here, right?" I looked up at him and he nodded.

"You should go sleep, if only for an hour or so. You look exhausted."

It was true. I was exhausted. I hadn't slept much in the past couple of weeks, my sleep had always been disturbed for one reason or another and tonight I was particularly tired. Maybe it was because of the fighting or maybe it was being so close to Lissa again; I could feel her through the bond, trying to absorb my energy.. unintentionally of course but it still had weakened me.

"I'm trusting you, Abe.." I said as I turned and walked away, heading towards the basement where I had set up home for the past couple of weeks.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoox

Sleep came easily to me.

But I awoke easily too. I jumped up from my makeshift bed, rolled off and stood on my feet. Hands clenched into fists in front of my chest, standing in a defensive position. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and the door swung open, in walking my own personal russian cowboy.

"Dimitri..."


	7. Chapter 7

"Don't do anything stupid," Dimitri raised his hands in the air, palms flat as he took a step towards me as if I were a wild mare needing taming. As he took his second step toward me, I threw a right hook at him, aiming at his face. With his exceptional speed he caught my cool wrist before I could my fist could cause any damage. I struggled against his iron clad grip but secretly bathed in the warmness of his touch. I had forgotten what it felt like to be touched by him. "Like that.." He sighed.

"I'm not one of your novices anymore," I said looking up at his ridiculously tall stature. "When you bark, I don't follow." I clenched my other fist watching as his eyes darted from my face to peer down at my free clenched hand. It was the perfect distraction. Raising my right foot in the air, I kicked out at his left knee with such force, he buckled fell to floor. Using my strength against his, I reached up and wrapping my hand around his forearm and twisted it whilst side stepping behind him performing the sleeper hold choke.

"I won't hurt you if you back down." He said through spluttered breaths. Before I knew what was happening he was on his feet, I was off of mine and hanging loosely around the back of his neck. He threw himself back across the room, knocking me hard into the wall. Even with the force of impact, I didn't lose my grip on him and so he threw himself back against the wall again, delivering a hard blow to my back and head.

"You're such a dick," I reached around and felt the wet patch on the back of my head. "Well that's just fantastic, thank you so much." The sarcasm was laced through my voice as I held pressure to my head to stop the bleeding. It wouldn't take long, cuts and bruises seemed to heal quicker since I had been turned. The downside was it made it harder to curb my continuous thirst, as I felt like with the loss of blood I needed to feed as soon as possible in order to refill the blood bank that was my body.

Dimitri turned around and looked at me. He took a couple of steps back and gazed at me, thoughtfully. "You still look the same." He muttered quietly to himself, his brow furrowing with this acknowledgment. His gaze returned to my face and as our eyes met, the softness that had just encased his distinctive features disappeared immediately. "But you're not the same." His words were harsh and pointed, his words were used to make a point.

And he was right. I wasn't the same. Physically I was stronger, emotionally I was absent and mentally, well I was a little more bitchy. "Haven't you ever heard the expression, if it walks like a duck, comrade?" I frowned and pulled my hand away from the back of my head. My palm was covered in blood but the wound had already healed. One of the perks of being the 'undead.' I tilted my head and examined him closely as a thought entered my mind, "How did you find us?" I asked, though the question was for the both of us.

Abe would have undoubtedly disposed of the car to protect me and also not to implicate himself. We had travelled for hours without any signs of tracker and through the bond I instantly felt Lissa, she was sleeping peacefully for the first time in months. "That traitorous bastard," I hissed through clenched teeth, the points of my fangs bearing down on the inside of my gums. As I moved away from the wall to storm upstairs to give Mr Ozera a piece of my mind, Dimitri once again stood his ground and blocked my only escape route. I glared up at him, "You might want to move."

"And you might want to remember who you're talking to." He shot back. His six foot seven, lean muscled frame would have been intimidating to anyone else. "I came here to recover the princess and take her back to the academy." His words were cutting deep, he wasn't here for me at all. Just for her.

"Then why are you here?" I asked and looked around the makeshift room that I had called my home for the past couple of months. "Why aren't you upstairs with a team, hauling her ass out of bed and into some a black mini van to take her back St. Vladmirs?" Shrugging my shoulders and frowning from confusion, I asked again hoping to get a clear cut answer from him for a change. "Why are you here?" With me, I asked myself.

"I-" Dimitri paused contemplating his words. Maybe he was going to be his usual stoic self and quote some Buddha crap at me but instead his features softened once more and his impassive expression turned sad. "I wanted to see for myself," He sighed deeply, "I needed to see for myself." Backing away from the door he walked over to the bed and examined in before turning his attention to the bedside table where I had stashed my ipod and a lip balm. "Your taught that once they change there is no going back, that they are dead inside." He turned and looked over his shoulder at me. "I think this, in my head I know it to be right."

He was looking at me, pleading with me slightly to reassure him that I was something different, someone different. "I hate to break this to you comrade but life is a little more complicated than the Moroi council paint it as. I'm no longer part of that cosy little black and white world, where we think we know the definitive answer of right and wrong." I mentally kicked myself for sharing so much, I hadn't let anyone see this side of me since I had changed. "But you don't want me to tell you that." I stepped closer to him, daring him to make his move and strengthening my own inner resolve that I was no longer the Rose Hathaway whom he loved. "You want me to tell you that like all the other strigoi out there, I hunt, I feed and I like it."

His nostrils flared and his dark eyes gleamed with anger. "You enjoy it?" His voice was dripping with disdain.

"I do," I admitted unashamedly. "The thrill of the hunt...it's like nothing I've ever felt before." Something he could never understand. He was a carbon copy of every guardian produced, living in their little judgmental world.

"And that's what makes you just like them." His voice and glance was so disparaging, I wanted to punch it right out of him. Self righteous asshole. "To take an innocent life.." Dimitri's expression turned sad momentarily and I knew he was picturing the old me, the seventeen year old naive girl he had fallen in love with taking an innocent's life. He was confusing her with me.

"Get off the white horse cowboy, nobody's that innocent."

Dimitri's brow furrowed and whatever inner dilemma he was fighting, it was settled. He struck out at me, his hand reaching out to grab ahold of my throat. Quickly side stepping his forceful strike, I grasped his elbow with my left hand and reached up and grabbing ahold of his shoulder with my right hand. Dimitri mirrored my move, grasping ahold of my shoulder with his right hand and my elbow with his left, trying to gain control. Stepping closed to him, I placed my foot in between his legs, causing him to straighten slightly. Pivoting to stand beside him, I kicked up behind me, forcing Dimitri to twist his body, losing the center of his balance. Continuing to twist his body, I throw my arms forward, throwing Dimitri away from me and to the floor.

"Recognize that one?" I asked cockily. It was a russian martial arts/wrestling move Dimitri had taught me at the end of one of our training sessions; he had taught me the move more for my amusement than actual training.

Dimitri was back on his feet in the blink of an eye, charging me. He wrapped his hands around my biceps and threw me hard against the wall once more, pinning my body down. Baring fangs, I growled at him. "Always so over confident, your biggest weakness."

"Yeah?" I asked and looked up into his soul coal black eyes. "Well I know what yours is.." That was the thing about being a Strigoi, while your physical abilities were heightened so were your emotions. With a surge of passion and need, I broke free of his grasp, pushing his arms aside and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his face down to meet mine.

Dimitri paused an inch from my face and then moved in, pressing his lips hard and fast against mine.


End file.
